Published

Author(s)

Share

Metadata

Abstract

Establishing robust, equitable, and
effective social protection is essential to reducing poverty
and boosting prosperity at all levels of development. The
demographic transition that has already transformed most
high-income societies will exert similar and growing
pressures on others, reinforcing the role of pensions and
savings for old age as a central pillar of social protection
systems. One possible solution that has emerged in recent
years that offers the potential to overcome this challenge
is the provision of contribution matches to provide an
immediate and powerful incentive for participation in
pension saving systems. Originating in several high-income
settings there are now a number of innovations and
substantial experience in low-income countries in using this
design to stimulate coverage and savings. This experience
now provides a rich opportunity for learning, not just from
the longer experience of a few high-income countries but
also the more meaningful South-South learning across
developing countries.This volume, which reviews
the experience with matching pension contributions across
the range of countries that have used the design, makes an
initial, but critically important investment in this
learning process. The description and analysis of this
experience which is the product of partnership and
collaboration across many public and private institutions
provide an invaluable early assessment of the design to
inform policy makers and practitioners as well as serve as a
model for the kind of cooperation that will be required to
address this difficult challenge. At the World Bank, we look
forward to being part of this learning process of how to
best provide old-age security for all.